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IT WAS HER VO.CE NORTHERN LIGHTS BT GILBERT PARKER AUTHOR or "The Right of Way," "The Seats of the Mighty.' etc., eto. Q TORONTO THE COPP. CLARK COMPANY. LIMITED 1909 P5 ?V- ?/ 199527 Cupyright. C.n«U. 1909. by Oil.krt Par,«, London. Englwd. First PubHshed in tpog >. TO ISHBEL, COUNTESS OF ABERDEEN A Tru Friend of the Great Dominion NOTE ^HE tales in this book belong to two different ^ epochs in the hfe of the Far West. The first five are reminiscent of "border days and deeds "-of the days before the great railway was built which changed a waste into a fertile field of civilisation. The re.-naining stories cover the period passed since the Royal North-West Mounted Police and the Pullman Car first startled the early pioneer, and sent him into the land of the farther North, or drew him into the quiet circle of civic routine and humdrum occupation. G. P. CONVENTS A Lodge in the Wilderness Once at Red Man's River . The Stroke of the Hour . Buckmaster's Bov . To-morrow Qu'appelle The Stakr and the Plumb-Line , When the Swallows Homeward Fly George's Wife Marcile • A Man, a Famine, Ar d a Heathen Boy The Healing Springs and the Pioneers The Little Widow of Jansen Watching the Rise of Orion The Error of the Day The Whisperer As Deep as the Sea. PACK I 23 41 63 78 101 J27 172 187 211 25' 271 291 335 356 Ix < ! BV THE SAME AUTHOR NOVELS AND STORIFS PmilR AND HIS PkOP;,K M»s. Falchion The Trispassbr The Translation or a Savage The Teail or the Sword When Valmond came to Pontiac An Adventurer of the North The Seats or the Miohty The Pomp or the Lavilbttes The Battle or the Stronc. The Lane that had no Turning The RioHT or Way Donovan Pasha A Ladder or Swords The Weavers HISTORY Old Quebec (In Collaboration with C. G. Bryan) TRAVEL Round the Compass in Australia poetry- A Lover's Dury NORTHERN LIGHTS A LODGE IN THE WILDERNESS " /-/^i'/^/' '° ^"^^* ^ ^^y' so clear!" said 11 Mitiahwe as she entered the big lodge and laid upon a wide, low couch, covered with soft skins the fur of a grizzly which had fallen to her man's rifle' Hat-yat, I wish it would last for ever-so sweet'"' she added, smoothing the fur lingeringly, and showing her teeth m a smile. ^ "There will come a great storm, Mitiahwe. See the birds go south so soon." responded a deep voice from a corner by the doorway. The young Indian wife turned quickly, and in a defiant fantastic mood-or was it the inward cry against an impending fate, the tragic future of those who will not see, because to see is to suffer ?_she made some quaint, odd motions of the body which belonged to a mysterious dance of her tribe, and with flashing eyes, challenged the comely old woman seated on a pile of deer-skins, "It is morning, and the day will last forever" she said nonchalantly, but her eyes suddenly took 'on a far-away look, half apprehensive, half wondering The birds were indeed going south very soon yet H 7..' ( 2 NORTHERN LIGHTS had there ever been so exquisite an autumn as this had her man ever had so wonderful a trade, her man wuh the brown hair, blue eyes, and fair, strong face ? The birds go south, but the hunters and buffalo st.ll go north," Mitiahwe urged searchingly. looking hard at her mother-Oanita. the Swift Wing ^ " My dream said that the winter will be dark and onely, that the ice will be thick, the snow deep' and that many hearts will be sick because of the Wack days and the hunger that sickens the hea^t" answered Swift Wing. "' Mitiahwe looked into Swift V/Ing's dark eyes, and an anger came upon her. "The hearts of Llards will freeze," she rejoined, "and to those that will no see the sun the world will be dark," she added Then suddenly she remembered to whom she was T^^'^S, and a flood of feeling ran through her- for Swift Wing had cherished her like a fledgeling Tn the East" H h y?"^,f '^^ -- --e from^"down East. Her heart had leapt up at sight of him and she had turned to him from all the young m;n of her tribe waiting in a kind of mist tUl he! aTLt had spoken to her mother, and then one evening her^shawl over her head, she had come along to It A thousand times as the four years passed by she had thought bow good it was Lt she had become his wife-thc young white man's wife, rather than the wife of Breaking Rock, son of ' Wht Buffalo, the chief, who had four hundred horsi^, and a face that would have made winter and our' days for her. Now and then Breaking Rock came and stood before the lodge, a distance o^ff. and stayed there hour after hour, and once or twice he came A LODGE IN THE WILDERNESS 3 when her man was with her; but nothing could be done, for earth and ^ir and space were common to them all, and there was no offence in Breaking Rock gazmg at the lodge where Mitiahwe lived Yet it seemed as though Breaking Rock was waiting- waitmg and hoping. That was the impression made upon all who saw him. and even old White Buft^alo Breaking Rock, his son, staring at the bi.. lod^e which was so full of happiness, and so full also of many hixut :s never before seen at a trading post on the Koonee River. The father of Mitiahwe had been chief chtf^'^ v' J V^''" '°"' ^"^ ^^^" ^'"^^ '" battle the chieftainship had come to White Buffalo, who was of S'd T! M°'^'"^ ^'""'^y- "^^-^ --'•^ those who said that Mitiahwe should have been chieftainess but neither she nor her mother would ever listen to this, and so White Buffalo, and the tribe loved Mitiahwe because of her modesty and goodness. She was even more to White Buffalo than Breaking Rock, and he had been glad that Dingan th. whit! man — Long Hand he was called — haa taken TwlT i\^'" '"r^"- ^^'' ^'^'''^ t'^'^ gladness tL^\ fu'.T^ '^'' °^^"'^' VVing. and behind the silent watchfulness of Breaking Rock, there was a thought which must ever come when a white man mates with an Indian maid, without priest or preacher, or writing, or book, or bond Yet four years had gone; and all the tribe, and all who came and went, half-breeds, traders, and other tribes remarked how happy was the white man with his Indian wife. They never saw anything but hVht '"f i . T" f Mitiahwe. nor did the old women of the tribe who scanned her face as she came and !^1 4 NORTHERN LIGHTS went, and watched and waited too for what never came— not even after four years. Mitiahwe had been so happy that she had not really m.ssed what never came; though the desire th TTT^'l"^ •" '^^ ^'^^ which'was part of them both had flushed up in her veins at times, and made her restless till her man had come home aga^n .nen she had forgotten the unseen for the seen and was happy that they two vere alone together-that was the joy of it all. so much alone together- fo tng Rock she vvatched her daughter's life, standing tha °th;""7. '' "". ''' """"'"^" '^- °f ^he tribf that the wtfes mother must not cross the path or enter the home of her daughter's husband. But a ast Dmgan had broken through this custom and .ns.sted that Swift Wing should be with her daughter when he was away from home, as now on thl wonderful autumn morning, when Mitiahwe had been singing to the Sun. to which she prayed for her man and for everlasting days with him. She had spoken angrily but now. because her soul sharply resented the challenge to her happiness which her mother had been making. It was her own eyes that refused to see the cloud, which the sage and bereaved woman had seen and conveyed in images and figures of speech natural to the Indian mind _ "^^^-J'^^r she said now, with a strange touching sigh breathmg in the words, "you are right, my mother, and a dream is a dream ; also, if it be d;eam^ three times, then is it to be followed, and it is true. You have hved long, and your dreams are of the Sun and the Spirit." She shook a little as she laid her hand on a buckskin coat of her man hanging by the ^mt A LODGE IN THE WILDERNESS 5 lodge-door ; then she steadied herself again, and gazed earnestly into her mother's eyes. " Have all your dreams come true, my mother?" she asked with a hungermg heart. "There was the dream that came out of the dark five times, when your father went against the Crees and was wounded, and crawled away into the hills' Zi .f r ""■ '^^,''"°'"' fl^d-they were but a handful! and the Crees like a young forest in number! I went with my dream, and found him after many days, and t was after that you were born, my youngest Ld my ast. There was also "-her eyes almost closed, and the needle and thread she held lay still in her lap- r.K u*"^", °^ r"' ^'''^^^'' '^^'■^ ^^"l^d in the drive of the buffalo Did I not see it all in my dream, and follow after them to take them to my heart? And when your sister was carried off. was it not my dream aga n to die in peace, her eyes seeing the Lodge whither she was going, open to her. and%he Sun. the Father, giving her light and promise-for she had wounded herself to die that the thief who stole her should leave her to herself! Behold, my daughter hese dreams have I had, and others; and I have lived Lt u ^5^^'^^" the bright day break intc storm and the herds flee into the far hills where none couM lollow, and hunger come, and " "I/ai-j^o, see. the birds flying south," said the mrl with a gesture towards the cloudless sky. " Nev'-r since I lived have they gone south so soon." A^ain she shuddered slightly, then she spoke slowly^"" also have dreamed, and I will follow my d.eam. I rested her ^^ds in her n .her's lap-" I dreamed that ^ NORTHERxV LIGHTS fnrZ'T" "'''"' '^'■^ and heavy and faraway, and that whenever my eyes looked at them thrv burned with tears; and yet I looked and looked tm my heart was like lead in my breast; and I tu'rned fi-om them to the rivers and the plain.; that I loved But a vojce kept calling to me. ' Come, come ! Beyond the hills IS a happy land. The trail L u / ^fV^^^ f.=t wn, bleed, bTbeyond^VeT pp,t„1i."A„T[ came an old man m my dream and spoke to me kindly, and sa.d.' Come with me, and I wUl showth^e the way over the hiUs to ,he Lodije whe e thou shah find what thou hast lost ! ■ And I said to him " have hi Xa^' h1 '"°f ""' ^°- Twi- liream^ im., T' . ""'= ""^ "'=' "«" '=^"=. ™d three t.mes I dreamed ,t;and then I spoke angrily to Wm as b„, now I lid to thee; and behold'' he'^chanrd before my eyes, and I saw that he was now become-!!!" a momf t t'*' '"' '"'"''' *■" '"'^ '" ^er hands for ft was r i K r'"'""^ herself-" Breaking Roek |t was I saw before me, and I cried out and fled Then I waked with a cry, but my man was beside me' no?, rr^r "■"""'' "'y '"'''■■ ^"■i 'his dream is f; not a foolish dream, my mother ? " The old woman sat silent, clasping the hands of her fov^f H .K?'^''''"'' l°°ktago"t of%he wide doo way fee?,;-:';;': ""^^ ' " -'^ -^^^ - ^'-". -^ g°' 'o her thf 1°?'"^.,^°''' '""^ ^°'' ^ '"°'"^"' '°°W"g towards the lodge, then came slowly forward to them. Never A LODGE IN THE WILDERNESS 7 long s ouchmg s.nde Breaking Rock came nearer ?^unr^;;;;^:rz^^^:-^nr^^ ^ometh,„g had happened; y.t MiUahfe fdtl't he belt for what no Indian girl would be without and Which n,adehi™.eve„ .hen JJotfhel", ^ ^S Hand. He spoke in a loud voice— ^ "The last boat this year eoes down tK« • Ri^^i f ^ "^ "^^ had enoueh of fh*. Blackfoot woman. You will see him no more" H^ waved a hand to the skv « Th^ w i ? ^^ A ho.^ • . "/"*^^Ky- -^ "e birds are going- south A hard winter is coming quick You will K i Breaking Rock is rich uTl c . ^ ^^°"^- Vonr ,., • "^ ^^^ ^^^ hundred horses Your man is going to his own people. Let him 1 St:;°;:,ot:^'Cwr--^-'-™- a=ri:S^h--r.er,^ r"g^ = r/-^^tt:^.f "That is good," he muttered. "She will kill him 8 NORTHERN J.IGHTS perhaps, when she goes to him. She will go. but he will not stay. I have heard." As he disappeared among the trees Mitiahwe dis- back into the lodge, ano sat down on the great couch ^Z'^t:"" "^^">'— '^'^^ »^ad lain wifhhir man Her mother watched her closely, though she mr.^«^ about doing little things. She was'tryingt htk "Xt she would have done if such a thing had happened to her. ,f her man had been going to leave hS. She assumed that Dingan would leave Mitiahwe. for he would hear the voices of his people calling f;r awav even as the red man who went East intf the gTeYt' cities heard the prairies and the mountains and Th^ put ofif the clothes of civilisation, and donned his buc - skins again, and sat in the Medicine Mans tent, and smoke of he sacred fire. When Swift Wing first gave her daughter to the white man she foresaw the danger now at hand, but this was the tribute of the lower rfce I.V.1! .^'f ^l"' ^"'^-^ho could tell? White men had left their Indian wives, but had come back again, and for ever renounced the life of their own nations, and become great chiefs, teaching useful things to their adopted people, bringing up their children as tribesmen ~"h T^";f ."P J^^'' '^^^'^'^ ■ '^^^'^ 't was. the thing ' which called them back, the bright-eyed children with the colour of the brown prairie in their faces, and their brams so sharp and strong. But here was no child to fml'IT ' ?.'{ '^" "^°^"""^' ^'^-^' ^^-«t face of Mitiahwe ... If he went! Would he go? Was he going? And now that Mitiahwe had been told that A LODGE IN THE WILDERNESS g he would go, what would she do ? In her belt was-but no, that would be worse than all, and she would lose Mit.ahwe. her last child, as she had lost so many others. What would she herself do if she were in Mitiahwe's place? Ah. she would make him stay somehow-by truth or by falsehood ; by the whispered story in the long night, by her head upon his knee before the lodge- fire, and her eyes fixed on his, luring him, as the Dream lures the dreamer into the far trail, to find the Sun's huntmg-ground where the plains are filled with the deer and the buffalo and the wild horse; by the smell of the cookmg-pot and the favourite spiced drink in the mornmg; by the child that ran to him with his bow and Trr K u*^%"'^ °^*^^ hunter-but there was no child; she had forgotten. She was always recalling her own happy early life with her man, and the clean- faced papooses that crowded round his knee— one wife and many children, and the old Harvester of the Years reaping them so fast, till the children stood up as tall hL ^H T\ '"^ ''^^^' '^^^' ^^^ '°"g ^g°.^"d she had had her share-twenty-five years of happiness ; but Mitiahwe had had only four. She looked ;t Mitiahwe standing still for a moment like one rapt, then suddenly she gave a little cry. Something had come mto her mind, some solution of the problem, and she ran and stooped over the girl and put both hands on her head. " Mitiahwe, heart's blood of mine," she said. " the birds go south, but they return. What matter if they go so soon, If they return soon. If the Sun wills that the winter be dark, and he sends the Coldmaker to close the rivers and drlv^e the wild ones far from the arrow and the gun, yet he may be sorry, and send a second summer— has it not been so. and Coldmaker has hurried 10 NOiriHEHN LIGHTS Shwt"''' ' ■'"'" ""'"^ S" »""'. l-u. .hey will ,«urn. If he did not ^IkrrutlJT*'"'"'^'^"''"*''''''''-^. breath upon his face ke„, kf , *"' e°'«'-'"':k- Thy .-d-iucS to Miti:h:e'':j::t hTdi^^si.,?-^ ■•' -- .hin^sT i::^:!r "ri: ^°' r "- --^Ht era lodge in the wildemeL b^.h ? ^' ""^ *"""= '" ""'^ no. yet. She mustTaii a„d t "™'' '° »'"="< "^ " *- filing, ran to a corner of „ ! '!"' ""'"' P'*'""^'' Iea.her bag drew forth fh t ''"'S=' ^"^ ^o™ a niurmuring to hLeir '""■'^•='''°= ""^ 'ooked at it, .-t, miZ:°^Z'X:' '" "°"''"'"^'>'- ■• What is dream come it i a gooi d^eU"" 'i=./°°^- -"^ 'fa come, it will no. enfer anT,? ,'"t " " '""' """g thing hid from ail the world .he,^, k'"'' P"^^ '°"^ Hxi-yi! I will put it over th "/ "«^ Sood-luck. All a. once her h»„,i a ? ''"°''' a"J 'hen •• -n,eterribL thougM haZmef k" ^"^' ^' '''-g'' the floor, she rockS her hS k ? '''''■ ""''' ='"'""g to for a time, sobWng But ^refe^l^^r'' ^""^ '""-^s again, and. going t'o tlfe doTof" tt^r''" "" ''^^ horse-shoe above it with = . ^S"' fastened the buckskin. * ^ S"'"^' "'^dle and a string of "Oh great Sun," she prayed, ..have pity on me and A LODGE IN THE WILDERNESS It save me. I cannot live alone. I am only a Blackfoot wife ; I am not blood of his blood. Give, O great one bIo(xl of his blood, bone of his bone, soul of his soul| that he will say. This is mine, body of my body, and he will hear the cry and will stay. O great Sun, pity me ! " The old woman's heart beat faster as she listened. The same thought was in the mind of both. If there were but a child, bone of his bone, then perhaps he would not go ; or, if he went, then surely he would return, when he heard his papoose calling m the lodge in the wilderness. As Mitiahvve turned to her, a strange burning light in her eyes, Swift Wing said: "It is good. The white man's Medicine for a white man's wife. But if there were the red man's Medicine too " "What is the red man's Medicine?" asked the young wife, as she smoothed her hair, put a string of bright beads around her neck, and wound a red sash round her waist. The old woman shook her head, a curious half-mystic light in her eyes, her body drawn up to its full height, as though waiting for something. "It is an old Medicine It is of winters ago as many as the hairs of the head. I have forgotten almost, but it was a great Medicine when there were no white men in the land. And so it was that to every woman's breast there hung a papoose, and every woman had her man, and the red men were like leaves in the forest— but it was a winter of wmters ago, and the Medicine Men have forgotten • and thou hast no child! When Long Hand comes' what will Mitiahwe say to him ? " ' Mitiahwe's eyes were determined, her face was set, she flushed deeply, then the colour fled. " What my mother v.ould -• -, I will say. Shall the white man's 13 NORTHEHX LIGHTS "Butifthe white man's Medicine fc!l>" c v.,. made a gesture toward, the d^" whet t^e h ^^"^ huntj. "It is M#.H.v;„«. c . "^"^^ *"« "orse-shoe Medlir...forl'l'„',t:;./" * """= "■""■ -" '' >» "Am I not a white man's wife?" Me.:j;:rrda;v.;of^" """'■■- '- «■» remem.Lr-,seeir„;rTa«-^r "" T "" make that Medicine also' m^m^ker/'"' ""■'"<"-" blood. Maybe my dream wmclr^;:',:>','',f"'= go ati^.."^' """ «" "' "-" '° morrow, and if he M|i:::;ra„th^--?^^^^^^^^ an.p^:;;;t:^:rhe ?-;;irm-:- ^ '-• ..•on;XTyrr„;^\ranr^^^ Indians and had made itT "■ """ '■^''«» *'"> «>= y-s, so that he c„l° ZtZTtufVu' "''' ^''^ ten lodges like that JZt T- 'V "'a"'' horses and between'-the l4e and ^he T"'''- '^''^ <«^'»"« mile, but MitUhle madll^T "" ",° "■°™ ""■" " r^m behind. Where Tll^tZ'^^Z^^'S:^:^^ A LODGE IN THE WILDERNESS ,3 was gathering now, and she could sec the glimmer of the light of lamps through the windows, and as the doors opened and shut No one had seen her approach and she stole through a door which was open at the rear of the warehousing room, and went quickly to another door leading into the shop. There was a crack through which she could see, and she could hear all that wassajd. As she came she had seen Indians gliding through the woods with their purchases, and now the shop was clearing fast, in response to the urging of Dingan and his partner, a Scotch half-breed. It was evident that Dingan was at once abstracted and excited. Presently only two visitors were left, a French half- breed called Lablache, a swaggering, vicious fellow, and the captain of the steamer, Ste. Anne, which was to make its last trip south in the morning,— even now it would have to break its way through the yoimr ice Dmgan's partner dropped a bar across the door of the shop, and the four men gathered about the fire For a time no one spoke. At last the captain of the Ste Anne said: " It's a great chance, Dingan. You'll be in civilisation again, and in a rising town of white people - Groise 11 be a city in five years, and you can grow up and grow rich with the place. The Company asked me to lay it all before you, and Lablache here will buy out your share of the business, at whatever your partner and you prove its worth. You're young; you've got everything before you. You've made a name out here for being the best trader west of the Great Lakes, and nows your time. It's none of my affair, of course, but i like to carry through what I'm set to do. and the Company said, ' You bring Dingan back with you. The place is waiting for him, and it can't wait longer than 14 NOHTHURN UGlVrS fl,» K • ,P '"'' *<= place over. I take half the busmes. hero, and I work with Dingan's partner i ";o:rTir:;^;^5..' '^^= -- '--""= a,! who had been standing abstrac^^dl ,4ntg'"af S lr;r:? rr ™ '^™ ^'■'* => ™«eredTa?h"a„^' in his presence, for they were na^fofr "TTI meant. £..,yA.^ meant hersdUbth.^S subtilty of the other, and^ht '1 / JfrLTas^tt'h^ was a successful trader, though he looked r. I rklrcolf^nT""^ ■•" "' -- S ^ecoXd .«if:ira*^f^'Vr'''='--'"^'^"~^"p"" man and herself alone. For no other man than A LODGE IN THE WILDERNESS 15 Dingan had her blooc' r.a faster, .nd he had made her life blossom. She hac" .sem in m. •/ a half-breed's and that of labiache, and .c. il.^.ers gripped softly the jhmg in her belt that had flashed out on Ikeakin^^ Rock such a short while ago. As she looked, it seenied for a moment as though Dingan would open the door and throw Labiache ot.t, for in quick reflection the door '"^" '^^ "'^" '° '^'' ''°°^^^" ^"' ^^"-^^^ "You'll talk of the shop, and the shop only, Labiache," he said gnmly. " I'm not huckstering my home, and I'd choose the buyer if I was selling. My lodge ain't to be bought. nora„j'^/a.o. in it_not even ti.e broom to kaTe" """^ half-breeds that'd enter it without There was malice in the words, but there was greater Zt"^ Z u '°"'' ^"^ ^"^'"^'^'''' ^^h° '^^^ bent on gettmg the busmess, swallowed his ugly wrath and determined that, if he got the business, he would get the i°ot^^ t\u 1"; '•'"'• ^°'' ^^"^^"' '^ ^^ went, would not take the lodge-or the woman-with him ; and Dmgan was not fool enough to stay when he could go to Groise to a sure fortune. ^ The captain of the Ste-. Anne again spoke. " There's another thing the Company said. Dingan. You needn't go to Groise not at once. You can take a month and visjt your folks down East, and lay in a stock of home- feehngs before you settle down at Groise for good They was fair when I put it to them that you'd mebbe want to do that. 'You tell Dingan.' they said, 'that he can have the month glad and grateful, and a free ticket they ^aS "''^^ ^"'^ ^°"''- ^^^ "" ^^^'''-^ ^' ^' ^"'^^'' i6 NORTHERN LIGHTS ii i Watching, Mitiahwe could see her man's face brighten and take on a look oflonging at this suggestion ; and it' seemed to her that the bird she heard in the night was callmg m his ears now. Her eyes went blind for a moment. "The game is with you. Dingan. All the cards are m your hands; you'll never get such another chance agam ; and you're only thirty," said the captal i _ "I wish they'd ask me," said Dingan's partner with a sigh, as he looked at Lablache. " I want my chance bad, though we ye done well here-good gosh, yes, all through Dingan." » / . " T "J^l ^'"^^'^' ^^^y ^° ^"^^^"^ '■" Groise," said Lablache. " It is life all the time, trade all the time bagoTh r "^^ ^""^ see-and a don fortune to make.' "Your old home was in Nove Scotia, wasn't it, Dingan? asked the captain in a low voice. "I kem from Conneticut, and I was East to my village las' yean It was good seein' all my old friends again ; but I kem back content, I kem back full of home-feelin's and^content. You'll like the trip, Dingan. It'll do you Dingan drew himself up with a start. " All right I guess I'll do it. Let's figure up again," he said to' his partner with a reckless air. With a smothered cry Mitiahwe turned and fled into the darkness, and back to the lodge. The lodge was empty. She threw herself upon the great couch in an agony of despair. A half-hour went by. Then she rose, and began to prepare supper. Her face was aflame, her manner was determined, and once or twice her hand went to her belt, as though to assure herself of something A LODGE IN THE WILDERNESS 17 Never had the lodge looked so bright and cheerful ; never had she prepared so appetising a supper ; never had the --eat couch seemed so soft and rich with furs, so homelike and so inviting after a long day's work. Never had Mitiahwe seemed so good to look at, so graceful and alert and refined— suffering does its work even in the wild woods, with "wild people," Never had the lodge such an air of welcome and peace and home as to-night ; and so Dingan thought as he drew aside the wide curtains of deerskin and entered. Mitiahwe was bending over the fire, and appeared not to hear him. " Mitiahwe," he said gently. She was singing to herself to an Indian air the words of a song Dingan had taught her — "Open the door: cold is the night, and my feet are heavy. Heap up the fire, sea. ^n it tie cones and the scented leaves ; Spread the soft robe o mch for the chief that returns. Bring forth the cup of 1 ...ibrance " It was like a low recitative, and it had a plaintive cadence, as of a dove that mourned. "Mitiahwe," he said in a louder voice, but with a break in it too; for it all rt hed upon him, all that she had been to him,— all that had made the great West glow with life, made the air sweeter, the grass greener, the trees more companionable and human : who it was that had given the waste places a voice. Yet— yet, there were his own people in the East, there was another life waiting for him, there was the life of ambition and wealth, and, and home — and children. His eyes were misty as she turned to him with a little cry of surprise, how much natural and how much assumed — for she had heard him enter— it would have 18 NoirniKKN TjcaiTs c„ h.u! to say. She was a woman, an.l (I,crcfore the daughter of pretence even when most ival He caught her In- both ar,„s as she shyly bnt ea^^M-Iy came toh.m "(.ood Ki.l.K.)oclIi„le,WrI."hesan!. HelooC round hun. " Well. IVe never seen our l.,d,.e look "Kcr than ,t does to-n.Vht ; and the fire, an.l the pot on iu. fire, and the smell of the pine-cones, and the cedar- bou<;hs, and the skins, and " "And everythinK%" she said, with a .|ucer little lauL^h. as^she moved away a-ain to turn the steaks on tlic Kverythin-! lie started at the word. It was so strange that she should use it by accident, when but a 1. tie while a.^'o he had been ready to choke the herself""' ' '"''"' ^""'^^' ^'"' "''"^^ '' '''^^^^^^"^S It stunned him for a moment, for the West, and the life apart from the world of cities, had j,nven him super- stition, l,kc that of the Indians, whose life he had made nis own. h.-m ,*"''f T''' '''"''; ''"■ '^'-'■"'' "■•'" ^''-''^ ^^^'-^•^ •''" '^"Ch to h.m ? As true as the sun she worshipped, her eyes had never Imsered on another man since she came to his lod-c; and, to her nn^nd, she was as truly sacredly marned to him as though a thousand priests had spoken, or a thousand Mcu'cine Men had made their mcantat.ons. She was his woman and he was her man As he chatted to her, telling her of much that he had Tt u\T •'"\'^ ^vondcring how he could tell her of ^// he had done, he kept looking round the lodge his eye restn^g on thi.s or that; and ever>-thing had its iwn personal history, had become part of their lod^e-life because it had a use as between him and her. and not a conventional domestic place. Every skin, every utensil A I,()I)(;|.: IN 11 IK WILDMUNKss every pilclK-r and l,,-,wl and pr.t and curtain, had be lo with thcni at one t line or another, when it hec ;c:n fimc of importance and renowned in the story of their days anrl leeils. II ow couhl he hreak- it to her— that 1 ie was gonif,^ to v.-ti...-, WW., people, and ihat she must he alone with her m<.ther all wint. r, I., await his return in the sprint: I l.s return? As he watched her sitting' beside him" he pmjr him to his favourite ch-sh, the close, companion- able trust and gentleness of her, her exquisite cleanness and grace in his eyes, he asked himself if, after all it was not true that he would return in the spring. The years had passed without his seriously thinkin- of this inevitable day. He had put it off and uff, content to hve each hour as it came and take no real thought for the future; and yet. behind all was the warning fact that he must go one day, and that Mitiahwc could not go with him. Mer mother must have known that when she let Mit.ahwe come tr> him. Of course; and after all, she would find another mate, a better mate, one of iicr own people. But her hand was in his now, and it was small and very warm, and suddenly he shook with anger at the thought of one like; ]h-eaki..g Rock taking her to his wigwam; or Lablache- tin's roused him ir. an inward fury ; and Mitiahwe saw and guessed the struggle that was going on in him, and she leaned her head against his shoulder, and once she raised his hand to her lins and said, "My chief!" ^ ' Then his face cleared again, and she got him his pipe and hlled it, and held a coal to light it; and, as the smoke curled up, and he leaned back cr)ntcntcdly fo- the moment, she went to the door, drew open the curtains, and, stepping outside, raised her eyes to the 30 NOIlTin:HN JJdiiTS , il W I: ill H II 'i'U keep hi.. And ,:^e ^/C;' L^bo ^^07;!" nurse at my breast that is of him O ? ^" :?^;,-;^"-"--'--"^-':-^^^^^ "What are you doing out there Mitiah.^«3» t^- cned; .„^ He, .He entered a^Ll^'btroLdtfto" " r ,vnl fi , , "^^'"'^ y^""* voice." life ofV lift," she added ^X'^ '" "^ ''^"'' """ ^ W dl I have something to say to you little mVI •■ l,. said, with an effort ^ ' "' I have been alone before-for five davs" answered quietly. ^^' ;' But it must be longer this time." How longP" she asked, with eyes fixed on If .s more than a week I will go too." It ,s longer than a month," he said. "Then I will go." " Bv Yt ^ *? ''" "^^ P"°P^^'" h^ ^-Jtered. By the ^^/-^^.y:///;/^./'' He nodded "It is the last chance this year- h„f I will come back-in the sprin- " ^ " ^"' ' the ,„c. had'^.een .t "tt h' ,[ r„d"t=he ^^tr;;:r• f h.s bones! The quiet, statry nights.letf^ .^f^ she his. -J A LODGE IN THE WILDERNESS 21 days the hunt, the long journeys, the life free of care and I,e warm lodge; and. here, the great couch-" ' arr'^'T^^' *°''^'^'^ ^'P^ that whispered at hs ear. the smooth arm round his neck. It all rushed upon h.m now. His people! His people in the Ka t who had thwarted his youth, vexed and cramped him saw only evd m his. widening desires, and threw him over when he came out West-the scallywag, tl>ey called h.m who had never wronged a man oLor 'a rrnl t ^""",':-^'-°"^^'^d-a-womani> The question sprang to his hps now. Suddenly he saw it all in « a":d 'f;- w '\°^ '^°^^'" °^ '^'' ^^'^ ^- ''-" -1 and body before h.m were all his. sacred to him • he was in very truth her « Chief." Untutored as she was, she read him, felt what was going on m h,m. She saw the tears spring to his eyes Then.commg close to him she said softly, slowly •" I must go with you if you go, because you must be with me when oh ^^/>,; my chief, shall we go from here? Here in th,s lodge wilt thou be with thine own people -thine own. thou and l~anc/ thine to covte " The great passion in her heart made the lie seem very With a cry he got to his feet, and stood staring at AA \ u ':"°'^^"t' s^^'-'^eJy comprehending; then suddenly he clasped her in his arms. ''Mitiahwe-Mitiahwe, oh, my little girl!" he cried You and me-and our own-our own people!" Kissing her, he drew her down beside him on the couch "Tell me again-is it so at last?" he said, and she whispered in his ear once more. In the middle of the night he said to her, "Some day perhaps, we will go East.-some day. perhaps." But now ? she asked softly. 22 noutiimux lkjiits " I've "Not now — not if I Lnnu- u •< i dooto ' H Xfreflrf ^ -t and. t^in, to the horse-shoe. ^ "^ "^ ^ ^^^"^ ^"^ touched the "Be good Medicine to me" she ^.iri tu prayed. "O Sim ,.;f i. ^^'°' ■^^'^n she said^o him O ""tv m' "'^ '''"J '^ '^^>' ^^ ^^ ^ have ""• ^ pity me, great Father ! " Me'd"cttc„r\!;:f ^'^^ ^^'^ "'^' " »- •>" the dark ritual "he had ^r ^T'^ "> the wrist in Man the night ttt Mrtia'T^f C'^'tt "=*^'"= but Mitiahwe sairl it,.,, u .! ? '°' •>" man,— which broughto'eof Din™ ■■. "'""'■ ""= '"°'^-^'>°'=. a uttie girf wi^rMittsrer rnT';o'°'''^i°i^=' father's face Truth h. ^ ^°^"^ ^nd her of the wcanl™ gr ."aTdT'.:""'^".' *^ '^'"^ long end, Mi.iahwe %tt her 1 "? '""■ '° "■= "-aitoge.herawo.a„:''a'„dtdg:odfo'rir^ ^'■^ I ONCE AT RED MAN'S RIVER " TT'S got to be settled to-night, Nance. This game -I- IS up here, up for ever. The redcoat police from Ottawa are coming, and they'll soon be roostin' in this post the Injuns are goin', the buffaloes are most gone, and the fur trade's dead in these parts. D'ye see ? " The woman did not answer the big, broad-shouldered man bending over her. bu. remained looking into the fire with wide, abstracted eyes and a face somewhat set You and your brother Bantry's got to go. This store am t worth a cent now. The Hudson's Bay Company 11 come along with the redcoats, and they'll set up a nice little Sunday-school business here for what InTtrvT'"!!"'''^ "''^'''" '^^^'•^'" be a railway, and the Yankees 11 send up their marshals to work with the redcoats on the border, and " "And the days of smuggling will be over," put in the girl in a low voice. « No more bull-wackers and mule- skinners «whooping-it up'; no more Blackfeet and liegans drinking alcohol and water, and cutting each Abreh ?''"^^'" ^ "^'^ ^"'"^ ''""^ """"'"^ °" '^^ ^°'^^'' The man looked at her queerly. She was not prone to sarcasm she had not been given to sentimentalism in the past; she had taken the border-life as it was had looked it straight between the eyes. She had lived up to It, or down to it, without any fuss, as good as any u NORTHKHN IJGHl'S but in the tone timt Th' u T ""' '" ""•' *<='-'l''. unusual and de?aml;/''= "'""=^ '"""■" »™«hinB bJa^^^^lf,;?,:'; ^"r"'"'' «°' "«° >--' Vo„ the border. Hu „"^ ^^^ ,^ P■°"f•^»» =ver was on been .he game o"rhere and ,?"?," ^"'^'""y"' -hafs risking our hVe., to getTiivTn- °f ""'h^tVe been *'aawtha.'''^'"''!,''^'''''=e''''>'"™°ved. «,- V„uain..a,4sab:;f.'';o/i-l^f,;He He caught her arm -vJdenlv " \r^ k . r hear it always I wnf • K ^"i ' ^"* ' ^^"t to than two— or three— fn =«ffi ^y^ybe it takes more she laughed ™ir[wess,; "' " """« '"^^ "'-^- Now .he?heTu; a^'Cd o^'h'" ',T '"'""^ -* -g-; watched her. " °" """""'• "^'^ ^ ^'ep back, and " ''"' i^an settle a thinir, if ther<.'< = h„, • . «e, Nance, you and Ban ry Wot t„ H '" "• ^°" fixing it up to-night overTt dZI ° , °'° °'"- "^'^ can't go it alone when you ouHv' f""'' """^ >""" this way : you can go wLt with il'. "'''■ '^°"'' "'^ North with me. Lry No«t T'^' '"J°'' '^" ^o ^-. and game aplenty^Xg-'-.^krhU-n^ ONCE AT HKI) MAN'S UIVKH 25 and farther up „„ the I'cace Uiver. If, goi,,,, „, ,,,. ^,| r.ght up there forhalfa lifetime, and we can'havc t h our own „ay yet. There'll be no s,nus;i;lin.., but there'll be tradma, and land to get; and, mdk tLere'd ^no Zt r^''-'';"!' '"• "= "" '""'^'^ "■ • !<"'- how -good white wh,sky-and we'll still have this free life t^dr"- „' "■•"'! """'^ "P "'y ">!"<' "> -"k down to a clean collar and going to church on Sunday, and tf^Ji:^^'''' '" >°- '-"- -• vo'^.'i::^ helt^a:dir„M':^"'"^ ^"^ "^ ''="'"=^^' -^ y™ g°t --'s momh T ' k" "'''"'=°-J''i« ^'»i" at the corners of his mouth she became conscious of the slight odour of inCit'y" '^ '"■'"' '"= "«^' '" ■>- '-= '»-" .n •■ Vou g:ot the ways of the deer in your walk, the song me' Nanc;' forTh™',";,;-'"'' "'""'" ^°'"^ '^°"'> >-'h me, isance, for I bni talkm' to you stiddy four years It s a long fme to wait on the chance, for there's alwavs m,„,e„ to be got, same as others have done-metnk'e D ngan w,th Injun girls, and men like Tobey with half-breeds. But I ain't bin lookin' that way. I b „ ook,n only towards you." He laughed eagerly and ''?m look" ■'? "'■."'■'^'^ ^tanding^n a t!ble 'n'r Ira lookm towards you now, Nance. Your health and ratne together. It's got to be settled now. You gcj^to^go to the 'Cific Coast with Bantry. or N^r^n" -Jm':it'si::'oth:^^e°r" '-' '°'-'"' ^ "■""=■ "^ "Or South with Nick I>r:.,gle, or East with someone 26 NOHTflMHN IKiin-S else," she said qui/zically. " llu.r,.- . •■. ,"'''" "^ Keep your hand, off. r,„ „o TTk '"'"""' *•"" '" '■""V- and bridle. YouVe got „„ .^ y r" ■ ^"V," *;" she relented, seeing thn i^^i , Suddenly .-at, after .,[ . :j f^i "„ 111 '^^ tf^; -;'' ,---^.>' keep him for four veir^ nn^ , • "*'^ '"'^^ ^0"'^ "but yes. Abe."?h:'^:, ,' '^^Z nve" ^"' '"^^- We've been good friend, all X '"""^ "'-'^^s- ^en all right out he"f You aid ''""' ''^"^ >""'- about me just now, and I liked ft t ""' '^'''^' you'd learned it ou of a book V " '' ^^''^'^ ^^ '^ -e; I'm plain homespun vt'.Z-'''' r° ^"'^^^ '" prairie-flower, but I like u-h r rf ^ "^^' ^ '" ""' ^ny '.vhen I like. I'm a bit of r\ '^'' ""^' ^ '''^^" ^ 'ot flower- " "" ^ b't °^ h'ckory, I'm not a prairie- Wh^Ulkin'f T" """^ " prairie-flower? Did I? wno^talkmg about prairie-flowers " a "oV.:;Thji,ttr"^' '™"'' ^' '"""-"of leading ,o anoAer Z^ ''''' '*""''"« '"' ^ <'«"-way refined-looking stripC nf f'"^ " ''"""■ "<= "as a not tall, but len '^adf fnd"" wr" ""' '^--^yrour, .nten.«ed rather than hiddt byS/^^',: J^^.^t!'"''^' ONCE AT HMD MAN'S IIIVKU a/ "Je-rick-cty! How lonj,' have I slept?" he said bl.nkin- at the two beside the fire. " Mow lonL'>" he- added, with a fluttc r of anxiety in his tone. J I said I'd wake jou." said the girl, coming forward. You needn t have worried." "I don't worr>-," answered the young man "I drea.ned myself awake, I suppose. I got dreaming of redcoats and U.S. marshals, and an ambush in the Harfleur Coulee, and " He saw a secret, warning gesture from the girl, and laughed, then turned to Abe and looked him in the face. " Oh, I know him I Abe lawlcy's all O.K.-I've seen him over at Dingan's Drive. Honour among rogues. We're all in it. How goes It-all right?" he added carelessly to Hawley and took a step forward, as though lo shake hands. Seeing the forbidding look by which he was met, however he turned to the girl again, as Hawley muttered something they could not hear. " VVhat time is it ? " he asked. "It's nine o'clock," answered the girl, her eyes watch- ing his every movement, her face alive. " Then the moon's up almost ? " " It'll be up in an hour." "Jerickety! Then I've got to get ready." He turned to the other room again and entered. "College pup!" said Hawley under' his breath savagely. "Why didn't you tell me he was here ? " "Was it any of your business, Abe?" she rejoined quietly. ■* " Hiding him away here " "Hiding? Who's been hiding him? He's doing what you've done. He's smuggling-the last lot for the traders over by Dingan's Drive. He'll get it there 28 NORTHEJ{N LIGHI'S by morningr. He hac ^ »'ha.'»got into you, aL?" '""'^ "■^'" '«=^'^ '» you. g"t no more sense for ,M. 1^ ""'' °' •"'"• ^'n't If youVe a friend o' liis vl'^ k °'"^ °"' '"=■■'=? He's green." ' ^^ 'l'''^^'^. had over this bully ™treJd""t' V '"^Po^-she «* most people and w» " "'''° ''^d 1"'^ own way «-d eagerly, "f bin^Mng W ri:::,^"- ^^^e," he As he closed the door behind l^^' entered the room again ' oJ Z ' " " ^°"^^^ P"P " excitedly. « j hoped^^u'd ee^Hd r'.^ ^""^^ ' " ^^ ^^^^ I wanted to be alone °"th vo„f °'^ "P"''^^'-^^- pally need to start yet WithM. r u ^^''"- ^ ^«"'t it before daylight "Then w'.l ^"" "'°°" ^ <^-" do Nancy, Nanc.ryouVe alv^f tL'fl' "^^'"^'' "^^' P'-airies," he added catchZ ^ ! ^°''^'" °^ ^" ^he into her eyes ' ^'"^ ^^' ^^"d and laughing If ONCE AT RED MAN'S HH ER 29 She flushed, and for a moment seemed ahnost be- wildered. His boldness, joined to an air of insinuation and understanding, had influenced her greatly from the first moment they had met two months ago, as he was gomg South on his smuggling enterprise. The easy way m which he had talked to her, the extraordinary sense he seemed to have of what was ^.oing on in hc-r mmd, the confidential meaning in \cjice and tone and words had, somehow, opened up a side of her nature hitherto unexplored. She had talked with him freely then for it was only when he left her that he said what he instinctively knew she would remember till they met again. His quick comments, his indirect but acute questions, his exciting and alluring remin- iscences of the East, his subtle yet seemingly frank compliments, had only stimulated a new capacity in her. evoked compari. ■ 3 of this delicate-looking fine-faced gentleman with the men of the West by whoni she was surrounded. But later he appeared to stumble into expressions of admiration for her as though he was carried off his feet and had been stunned by her charm. He had done it all like a master. He had not said that she was beautiful.-she knew she was not but that she was wonderful, and fascinating, and with something about her" he had never seen in all A K,' ^''^^„^^'';^^^'" P'-aines. thrilling, inspiring, and adorable. H.s first look at her had seemed full of amazement. She had noticed that, and thought it meant only that he was surprised to find a white girl out here among smugglers, hunters, squaw-men. and Indians. But he said that the first look at he; had made him feci things, feel life and women different from ever before; and he had never seen anyone like her, nor a face with so much in it. It was all very brilliantly done 30 NORTHERN LIGHTS taken it .i..-a„y, fndlad Is rhfa "//Sr \'' wish to die: and he h;>rf ,. j j "^'' '«=«'' h s interpretation' o? his meani^r™'" '1 "" ""^'^'ken -ch so„o„he had%'"otr„?;dTr''^A^\f ■^^O ills face ooked in truth ^ , ^^ "^ said it care ; so that ti. e caL; Ts^Z? ^T\''^^ '"'^^"^ had so far for any mm ,LTL ^''"^ "''= ''ad never to look after hta Thlrwaf ,h^ 7^''' '° ''*^<= ^^^one maternal and protect -esoWt V" '"™S "' ">= though it had shown Lrl '," ''" '°''^'^' -"en, animals and birds He ^dsaTi". t^T^^ '"^'"'"S live, and yet he had come out We^t 7' "'"'=" «° live, to cure the trouble?!,?, k J " °"'^' '° try and The Eastern do^7o"s had toM v""^ ''" "' '""g=- outdoor life would cure hin, u"? """ ">= ""gh had vanished f^m thT colTe' J "''''>"'g """'d, and he purlieusoflearnineandffK^ ■"'''"'' ='"<' *= Pl=a»ant not lied directly to her v^t°". '"'°'}' ''""'■ "^ h^" deep trouble; b^t he had Jven^he't'o ' '^ 't" '>="' was suflering from wrongs w^lchtdbror™, ■""'* *= and ruined his health w , ''™''=" his spirit beeninhis,if,hyrmj:;:rj:;- ""''"'^ "^'^ f«.u7mr:::i:s^f?!:LrhVt'''Vr r* -- -•"•' was something in thrsound nf 1 r 'u ''"'■' '"'' ">"<= ing his farewen words whwf l^^^ '''^^' "^""^h follow- Her tremendourheahh ani '™"'' ''^^ """ ■''■"«• burning s„ brightly t her r^r?'' "'= ""■' °f "fe -an living on^so L"ow a ma 'f' 7r '™"* ""'^ s?r:s:°andrr.T'f^--^^^^^ « '* ONCE AT RED MAN'S RIVER 31 having covered forty miles since his last stage. She was at the door and saw him coming while he was yet a long distance off. Some instinct had told her to watch that afternoon, for she knew of his intended return and of his dangerous enterprise. The Indians had trailed south and east, the traders had disappeared with them, her brother Bantry had gone up and over to Dingan's Drive, and, save for a few loiterers and last iiangers-on, she was alone with what must soon be a deserted post ; its walls, its great enclosed yard, and its gun-platforms (for it had been fortified) left for law and order to enter upon, in the persons of the red-coated watchmen of the law. Out of the South, from over the border, bringing the last great smuggled load of whisky which was to be handed over at Dingan's Drive, and then floated on Red Man's River to settlements up North, came the "college pup," Kelly Lambton, worn out, dazed with fatigue, but smiling too, for a woman's face was ever a tonic to his blood since he was big enough to move in life for himself. It needed courage— or recklessness— to run the border now; for, as Abe Hawley had said, the American marshals were on the pounce, the red- coated mounted police were coming west from Ottawa, and word had winged its way along the prairie that these redcoats were only a few score miles away, and might be at Fort Stay-Awhile at any moment. The trail to Dmgan's Drive lay past it. Through Barfluer Coulee athwart a great open stretch of country, along a wooded belt, and then, suddenly, over a ridge, Dingan's Drive and Red Man's River would be reached. The Government had a mind to make an example, if necessary, by killing some smugglers in conflict, and the United States marshals had been goaded by vanity and i ji 32 NOimiEHN LIGHTS anger at one or two escanes "fr. u their money," a, they "aid^Tha. '„"„"'■'"?'"■"« '"' meant, "to let the red run" and k- n ,"' ''"8"»e<=. none too much blood to iTe '*" ^-'"'"^'°" ''«1 Ma'che,^hr„d:?ora:;';',e':r'' ^^ '^ "="' ^-- he had done when he "ft he tt ' P™™-''"*'^^. a,, his arriva, but now hetd ^M h-,r or^ h^'""' f" she was glad to see him and !,„ J " ""' ""« after thirty-six hours o ccas" " .^ ,*''. '■"' ^''^P' and danger. Now with th? . ' ""'' "Aching journey s^ill beforrhlm and w "' f"'""'* P'"'' "f ^^ his blood was runlg":«:'a?re To f'?"^ "'^ ''^ *^^' •ace, and something i^ her ab^daVt fo t anTb"" f' life drewhm to hrr Q„oK v ,. . '^^^ ^"a boundmrr Hawley "ould haveantred K '^'r " ™" ''''^ '^'^ "ttle .i,.c ago. when !& wt ".LL"'!!'' "■' " "" « ■ •he girl, it roused in him a hunger t^ 1 T'"'''^'' ''^ of her perfect health frorn^h ^^ '^'°'" "■« "■«« being, something for himLTfTh"""''''/'^''" "^ '«^ -rmed him, i! ,,^Z'^ of\ttf "'.f "l^""' eloquence of face and form he Lt„; ,, """S beautiful. The liehtne.< „, ' ^ /"'Sot she was not his face became e^r ' "^ '^^ ''"•" "''^ »™ds. and " Flower, yes, the flower of the lifp of .1, n, "•hat I mean," he said. "You a 1 litl """-"'^'■' ing When I look at ' 1,'' =>" ^™y march- want to march t^ wC\ hi ""'T' ''''"■ ' iife;s worth living-, .'^d^:'ZT'^'''' ' '^" "'^' Haf:,t^^tttm^m-7ofttrwir^- - "^-ArHtX'h"'^^ wet?.t;-t,^;th:;: «'■• -i'h an attempt, only half-meant, to turn the ONCE AT RED MAN'S UIVEU 33 topic, she said : " You must be starting if you want to get through to-night. If the redcoats catch you this side of Barflcur Couk^e, or in the Coulee itself, you'll stand no chance. I heard they was only thirty miles north this afternoon. Maybe they'll come straight on here to-night, instead of camping. If they have news of your coming, they might. You can't tell." "You're right." He caught her hand again. "I've got to be going now. But Nance— Nance— Nancy I want to stay here, here with you ; or to take you with me. ^ She drew back. "What do you mean.?" she asked. " Take me with you— me— where ? " " East — away down East." Her brain throbbed, her pulses beat so hard She scarcely knew what to say, did not know what she said "Why do you do this kind of thing? Why do you smuggle?" she asked. "You wasn't brought up to this." ^ "To get this load of stuff through is life and death to me, he answered. " I've made six thousand dollars out here. That's enough to start me again in the East where I lost everything. But I've got to have six hundred dollars clear for the travel — railways and things ; and I'm having this last run to get it Then I've finished with the West, I guess. My health's better; the lung is closed up, I've only got a little cough now and again, and I'm off East. I don't want to go alone." He suddenly caught her in his arms. I want you— you, to go with me, Nancy— Nance • " Her brain swam. To leave the West behind, to go East to a new life full of pleasant things, as this man's wife ! Her great heart rose, and suddenly the mother in her as well as the woman in her was captured by 34 NORTHERN LIGHTS Lambton's Indian iJImZ ° Thf u'?'"''"^''' ^^ quick here," he said. "g^. 1 see. They come the^Th" ?rm^o™pis'tS;"' ^'"■'"°" '■■^•'«' to there was .he sound of hC •^7^ ' '"" <^^P' "•■<»■ opened and an officer s 'e;;"J i:;^: '"^ ''°°' ^"^-^ brus^ue^ Xnt::- ,"-""& ^-"ton," -e said "Oh, bosh! Prove It" [l ""'^'"' ''^ ^ revolver. J»Ie and startled, bnt Ui in ^2^^ !.'"' ^"''"e "»", " We'll prove i all ,S^i '"^P«ch and action. . The girfsaid o^itht'to The^'f '' '"^''"'■'^■" language. She saw he d!d nn^ °?'" '" ">= Chinook »poke quickly to Jmbtonln 1 '^°'^'""''- '^>'^ '^ " Keep him^ here a b t° • she t""" h"^'' come yet. Your outfit i well hid ,.,"'^ ™;" haven't away with it before they rZ f' Thl'^ '/, "" 6=' bnng you with them, that's sue l'^."/°»°«. and and get through, we'll n^tat n ° ^^ ' ''^"^ '•"="< Lambton's fa^e brigSed hT" '• m"''" few directions in Chin<«k and . iTk "^ «^™ ''" a at Dingan's if she got there fi"^ ^Z **"" '" ^° gone. ^°t there first. Then she was bu^hrrSlLd'lhr ZT'"',^' J^-e had said had an advantage ov^'-Lr t^^'^' '" '"■ '"^ courage he had ridden on TlAn . "" "nnecessaiy and, as it proved, „™ho p^X ", "'^^^ his captu;^ "an, but he had not eot t^ " ."? had got his S°t the smuggled whisky and ONCE AT RED MAN'S RIVER 35 tT'^rt ^ M TT '° •'^""'- ^^'""'^ ^^■'^ "° time to be lost The girl had gone before he realised it. What L she^d .e?"' ' '^""^'°" ''^P''^^ ^°°"y= "She said shed get you some supper, but she guessed it would have to be cold What's your name? Arc you a colonel or a captain, or only a pLcipal pHvatf P" I am Captain MacFce, Lambton. And you'll now bring me where your outfit is. March » " The pistol was still in his hand, and he had a deter mined look in his eye. Lambton saw it. He was" aware of how much power lay in the threatening Id before him. and how eager that power was to make chats. ' '"' ^"^''^ "Examples"; but he took h': "I'll march all right," he answered, "but I'll march to where you tell me. You can't have it bo h ways You can take me. because you've found me.ind tou can take my outfit too when you've found i ; but I^m not doing your work, not if I know it " anr;>TT7r^^^''^^^"^^"'' ''" ^^e" eyes of the officer and ,t looked for an instant as though someth,n7of the lawlessness of the border was goL to mark tl- first step of the Law in the Wildernes's. bu't he l^though Lan.h^ ' V''" Y"^ ''•' ^"'^^'>^' y^' •" - voice whlh Lambton knew he must heed " Put on your things— quick." When this was accomplished, and MacFee had secured the smu^f^ler's ni ^"^ - he went his kee'f ear heard his own mules galloping away down toward 3<5 NORTHERN LIGHTS i £ the Barfleur CouMe. His heart thumoed In V k Drivf. it would te=^ f„! r^T' '^"^^ °'"g-"'^ had ever seen and?, f Performance as the West the good. He' Jfaten/d "It ^ ' ' ''""'^«' """"^ " sounds had d,ed Imofhe Hi« """'f «^"°P'"e' "" *« his captor haj heard too »,^d r!' '','" ^^ =*>' "O" ">»' desperate ' """^ "'^' "'* P""-^"" would be ships and discouragement ^ °' "'"' ^^'^- ho^^an^x?™:,; or^r"'rrtr dn^ turned with carbines 0^^::,, b„T if was aI^'h ^"l^^ spirit was up against them al altas. he t"" "''= sented by the trnnn^re ' f^^'"^^ *"« Law repre- against the tro^^^and'Z '' ''"^ ^tay-AwMe. Nancy Machelli^fa Nance h"""'" ?P'='='''"S ^"='- and freedom for the hated 0.°^ "^^ "'''''"^ ''='■ "^ between the troopSs l^ti h^ '• v """^^'^^ "''''"^ Nance herself. ^ =P'"' "^^ "P against hetarcottTrcMo'l'd'h""^ bac. in an hour » and her word. She had d"- I T""' ^l^" '"'' broken -.uryearsofL^.,-;---.^^^^^^ ONC'K AT Ri:i) MAN'S HlWAi 37 lust was in his heart, which would not be appeased till he had done some evil thing to someone. The girl and the Indian lad were pounding through the night with ears strained to listen for hoof-beats commg after, with eyes searching forward into the trail for swollen creeks and direful obstructions. Through Barfleur Coul= P^' -"> beenfoiM. He hadnooCf '«'''\°f ^" 'hat he had must go free "^ "^ "'^ anything, and Lambton ai^dtf's::t^i:„'':r..'^Nance-^^^^ -V With i. B„. : wou-idn't^TUs.: i'ff r "Once is enough," answered the i ,-iS } ONCE AT RED MAN'S RIVER 39 He looked round the group savagely till his eyes rested on Nance and Umbton. • TnTlast h," he said in a hoarse voice. "My horse broke its leg cuttin.. across to get here before her " He waved a hand toward, Nance "It's best stickin' to old trails, not 2^1%Tt°T "^' "y^^ "^''^ <■"" °f hate as he looked at Lambton. « I'm keeping to old trails. I'm for goin North, far up. where these two-dollar-a-day and hash-and-clothes people ain't come yet." He made a con- temptuous gesture towards MacFee and his troopers. fiveH r^'JTu "^ '°''^ ^ '''P forward and fixed his bloodshot eyes on Nance. "I say I'm eoin' North. You comin' with me. Nance?" He took olhis cap to her. He was hagprd. his buckskins were torn, his hair wa, dishevelled.and he limped a little; but he was a massiv" and striking figure, and MacFee watched him closely You said Come back ,n an hour.' Nance, and I come back as r said I would," he went on. "You didn't stand to your word. I've come to git it I'm pnin' North. Nance, and I bin waitin' for fou^ iears 7or'you to go with me. Are you comin' ? " His voice was quiet, but it had a choking kind of sound, and it struck strangely in the ears of all. MacFee came nearer. av-irci. " Are you comin' with me, Nance, dear ? " She reached a hand towards Lambton, and he took It, but she did not speak. Something in Abe's eves overwhelmed her-something she had never seen before bstead'"*"" *° '''^^ '^'^ '" ^^'' ^'"^*°" ^P^l^^' settled.'-' ^°'"^ ^^'* "^''^ "'^'" ^^ '^'^- '"that's 40 NORTHEKN LIGHTS "Waltr^h '"r""- '"''" •"= "»ght Abe's arm Wa,t! he sa.d peremptorily. " Wait one m"ute " ^^"iircT"" ■■" "' ™'-» "-''chTr Abe -Zh^r;^.otaitr ^.. ivt tn .^li ^^^- Lambton with his eves anH t u "^ fastened you to,d ber yoVr,„T''a\riirHt;"c -and a^coitjrirerl:,'!';.^"'' ""^ "' -"'=^' It had come with terrible c,,^^ Lambton, and he was too daled to t^l'" "'™ '" troopers ;awbm"adSf^™a^„„t T'" "' ««= while be .as pelted with mLd frrm7he"*„::.' ' "''""=■ The next morning at sunrise Abe Hawlev «nH fi, ;-ce or the peace/ ba„r/:.:rrrrr-^ THE STROKE OF THE HOUR " 'T^HEY won't come to-night— sure." 1 The girl looked again towards the west, where, here and there, bare poles, or branches of trees, or slips of underbrush marked a road made across the plains through the snow. The sun was going down golden red, folding up th'^ sky a wide soft curtain of pink and mauve and deep purple merging into the fathomless blue, where already the stars ,vere beginning to quiver. The house stood on the edge of a little forest, which had boldly asserted itself in the wide llatness. At this point in the west the prairie merged into an undulating territory, where hill and wood rolled away from the banks of the Saskatchewan, making another England in beauty. The forest was a sort of advance- post of that land of beauty. Yet there was beauty too on this prairie, though there was nothing to the east but snow and the forest so far as eye could see. Nobility and peace and power brooded over the white world. As the girl looked, it seemed as though the bosom of the land rose and fell. She had felt this vibrating life beat beneath the frozen surface. Now, as she gazed, she smiled sadly to herself, with drooping eyelids looking out from beneath strong brows. " I know you — I know you," she said aloud. " You've got to take your toll. And when you're lying asleep 4« i 42 NORTHERN UgHI-S ^ kind and beautiful ! Bui v„m ' ''"' J""" "" one way or t'other." She sJh.^ """!,' ""^"^ J""-^ 'o" after a moment, lookrng aW ^r"" ^"'"'■' '"-". expect they'll come to-ntef, t/JlV"~" ' """'^ ■f-.f they stay for ,/„,..^ ' ^""^ "'^^*^ ""t to-morrow, t-^ti^? irief facf r d "■'*■ «" "> thinner. ..fiu. dad wouWn'r™ .""^''="'>' '» get considerin' " AgaZshtLT "' "^°""<'"''. "ot Her face was now turni t I °''^' '" P^'"- which she had expected W t"™,,*^ ""'"" '•<«d by east, where alreaSy X sn„l ' ""'' '"""ds the W-fah tint, a refleL:;ofTe 2 ?""^'.™ ^ ^-nt mght m that half^rirde of ,hehJ '^^P?""S towards I'ttle blealc and cheerli the hi f™' , °'"^"* '""<' » now. '^^ *e half-circle was looking "No one-not for two weeks " «h- -j • on the eastern trail, which wa' so Lh""; '" ~"""^"' winter, and this year had h. , "' f^quented in "It would be ni^to have r„ L'""""«' '"»" 'ver she faced the west and h: sink ?j"""' *= ""•'->■ - so lonely-just minutes I 2 uL?" T'"' "' g« "■■nutes that seem to cLS ' K ^"'^ "'^ them when they come. I exp^t "Lr^ """ "" '"' >*=' months and years, but iust in 1/ . ""^ ''™'' "« in '°ng for an earthquake to d^r'" ," "'^"'^ '^^e *en. . . , P'r'ap, dad won't eve! "°*-"'^ ^<=~"* she added, as she laid her hr!^ ""^ 'o-morrow.» never seemed so long tte not °" ""^ '"'=''• "" '■way a week." She TauZLrK^™ "''=" •>='» been company's better than nf !„""'>'• "'^^'" ".a A- Mickey has been", ^ Ta^: Ve^ ^ , S^^^' THE STROKE OF THE HOUR 43 away past times. Mickey was a fool, but he was company ; and mebbe he'd have been better company if he'd been more of a scamp and less a fool. I dunno, but I really think he would. Bad company doesn't put you off so." There was a scratching at the inside of the door. " My, if I didn't forget Shako," she said, " and he dying for a run ! " She opened the door quickly, and out jumped a Russian dog of almost full breed, with big, soft eyes like those of his mistress, and with the air of the north in every motion — like his mistress also. " Come, Shako, a run — a run ! " An instant after she was flying off on a path towards the woods, her short skirts flying and showing limbs as graceful and shapely as those of any woman of that world of social grace which she had never seen ; for she was a prairie girl through and through, born on the plains and fed on its scanty fare— scanty as to variety, at least. Backwards and forwards they ran, the girl shouting like a ch.id of ten,— she was twenty-three,— her eyes flashing, her fine white teeth showing, her hands thrown up in sheer excess of animal life, her hair blowing about her face — brown, strong hair, wavy and plentiful. Fine creature as she was, her finest features were her eyes and her hands. The eyes might have been found in the most savage places ; the hands, however, only could have come through breeding. She had got them honestly ; for her mother was descended from an old family of the French province. That was why she had the name of Loisette — and had a touch of distinction. It was the strain of the patrician in the full blood of the peasant ; but it gave her something which made her what she was —what she had been since a child, noticeable and be- 1 44 jii' M i' ni- at ¥ 11 NORTHERV LIGHTS sought, sometimes beloved. K was ton «^ to couipel love often b.,f :, .° ^^'■°"g a nature admiration. Not grTa'tly a rerrrof'^'^^ ^^"'P^^ become moody of late • and I °^ ^^rds, she had -d feeling an^d an.^a'l Uft Te^u^dT t' "''' ^'^^^ '■^"^etS^hl^^^^^^^^^^^ the little house, which ook'eH ^""^ *^" ^°°'- ^^ She paused befire she ame to J"/ '"' '°"^^-^''^^- smoke curling up from Tk/ . • '^''^'■' *« ^^tch the column, for fhere' wa^nof a trhV^^''^'^ ^' ^ The sun was almost gone and tZ . V '^""""S' was settling on everyth^4g-W„f;j„^7,^ bluish light trees a curious burnished toni^ '^^ ^'■^^" ^P'-^ce waf^a^'Truid tt^^h^^drH-^^'- ^^ hundreds of times! It was the "■^. ^°^ "'^"^ some broad branch of tTe fir . '" '''^P'"^ ^^^ Yet she started now So'th '"' '° '^" ^^^""d. agitatinghersensesIffecHnTh ^^i.""^' °" ^^^ '"'nd, " I'" be Jumping out r^^ bL^'^'T ^^°^- or the frost cracks the ice L^"' I •!?' ^" '"^P^' temptuously. ««i dunn« u , ^^ ^^'^ aloud con- Ifeelasifs^omeoLtsLl^^^^^^^^ ^'^"^^"^^ -^^ -e. out on me. I havenWer fel 7-^?"'" """^^y ^° Pop She had formed the ha bt of '"^n -''^"^ ^^°'-^" had seemed at first as , hi r"^ '° ^'''^^^' ^or it father went trapping or „'„"" "'' '^°"^ "^^" ^^r -nt. that by Z byTheToXTa^aft^ ^°^^"'- her own voice, if she didnV fV i , ' ^^^ ^°""d of given to soliloquy defWn Ah m^I°"^- ^^ '^^ ^^as who talked to' Lm'el tri' '•"' *'^^ ^^P'^ Whedatthat. She .a^ thT bird^'""^ "^'^^ ^^^ selves and didn't go mad and :« • '^"^ *° *h^"^- ^ mad. and crickets chirruped, and THE STROKE OF THE HOUR 45 - frogs croaked, and owls hooted, and she would talk and not go crazy either. So she talked to herself and to Shako when she was alone. How quiet it was inside when her light supper was eaten, bread and beans and pea-soup — she had got this from her French mother. Now she sat, her elbows on her knees, her chin on her hands, looking into the fire. Shako was at her feet upon the great musk-ox rug, which her father had got on one of his hunting trips in the Athabasca country years ago. It belonged as she belonged. It breathed of the life of the north-land, for the timbers of the hut were hewn cedar ; the rough .chimney, the seats, and the shelves on which a few books made a fair show beside the bright tins and the scanty crockery, were of pine ; and the horned heads of deer and wapiti made pegs for coats and caps, and rests for guns and rifles. It was a place of comfort ; it had an air of well-to-do thrift, even as the girl's dress, though plain, was made of good sound stuff, grey, with a touch of dark red to match the auburn of her hair. A book lay open in her lap, but she had scarcely tried to read it. She had put it down after a few moments fixed upon it. It had sent her thoughts off into a world where her life had played a part too big for books, too deep for the plummet of any save those who had lived through the storm of life's trials; and life when it is bitter to the young is bitter with an agony the old never know. At last she spoke to herself. " She knows now ! Now she knows what it is, how it feels — ^your heart like red-hot coals, and something in your head that's like a turnscrew, and you want to die and can't, for you've got to live and suffer ! " Again she was quiet, and only the dog's heavy 4« s m i n V" i %'4 NORTHERN LIGH'I^ breathing, the snap of the fire timber in the deadly frost hi !" '^^ ''^'^ "^ « it was warm and br4 and h' >- ""''"'" ^"^'^^ twenty degrees belof e^o ,'711.''^ '' °"*-^>^-'t -s where hTe itself was conJaL J , '^"'^ ''^'^^ tomb low. twinkh-ng, ^n/':X^'^^'''':'^^^^fT'' corrosion, not of f5re iived — a life of sharp ■onely places can b. so It' """^ "^'^^ ^^= '--^d ■'" It was a feeling delicate a„rff*/° "^"'""'^ "> ">""''■ ptting the vibfation You coutT "t """'^ "=""- had you been there • non, K, T ^"^ ^^'^ ""'hing, spaces could hav^'done so X.^^^ "^ '"= "''S woman felt, and both str»? / ""^ ''°8 ""d the Again they heard and ?'^ ""''' ""^ "■"''<>*• far, far a Jy, and stHl vo„ . m'° "■^'^ '«='• It was now they h^ird c,early'Z"a c^y 1"?^ '" •\'"="' ^ "■" pam and despair The M ""S""' » ^T of pulled aside the bearsbn ^.!^/:''" ° "'^ "'"''ow and *ut out the hght Then T'""''''^'''^''''<=°">P'«'=lv '°g upon i, sniffed ?hrcf„:,*l^ n' '''' "''™ ^ moccasins, fur-coat, wool-can and ,^ P"" °" ''=■• to the door quickly the rio^'^; «"d sloves, and went she stopped ^ut info the n^lU " '"''''■ °P="'"g ''■ s.rafedTowafdsTht°we«' sI*"/:" ' " .'"" ^="''^''- ""'' her father or Mickey the Wred™„"':rToth" ""^'^' ■"= The answer came frnm ♦> ^"- neighbouriess, emp /:,"_: Tr^'' ™'.°f "- homeless, were only stars, and the ni,-ht^a T"u "T ^''"^ "rco^utont:r?x-ii^^^^^^^ -wer to her calls the -:rSt:-;Xtrir" THE STROKE OF THE HOUR 47 Now suddenly she left the trail and bore away north- ward. At last the voice was very near. Presently a figure appeared ahead, staggering towards her. " Qui va id ? Who is it ? " she asked. " Ba'tiste Caron," was the reply in English, in a faint voice. She was beside him in an instant. " What has happened ? Why are you off the trail ? " she said, and supported him. " My Injun stoled my dogs and run off," he replied. "1 run after. Then, when I am to come to the trail "— he paused to find the English word, and could not — "encore to this trail I no can. So. Ah, bon Dieu, it has so awful ! " He swayed and would have fallen, but she caught him, bore him up. She was so strong, and he was as slight as a girl, though tall. " When was that ? " she asked. "Two nights ago," he answered, and swayedt'* "Wait," she said, and pulled a flask from her pocket. " Drink this— quick ! " He raised it to his lips, but her hand was still on it, and she only let him take a little. Then she drew it away, though she had almost to use force, he was so eager for it. Now she took a biscuit from her pocket. "Eat; then some more brandy after," she urged. "Come on; it's not far. See, there's the light," she added cheerily, raising her head towards the hut. "I saw it just when I have fall down— it safe me. I sit down to die— like that ! But it safe me, that light — so. Ah, bon Dim, it was so far, and I want eat so I " Already he had swallowed the biscuit " When did you eat last ? " she asked, as she urged him on. " Two nights— except for one leetla piece of bread— I fin' it in my pocket. Grdcel I have travel so far. 48 NORTHERN LIGHTS Jifsu, I think it ees ten thousan' miles \ ar^ n * i go on. I mus' ^o-certainement" ' ^^' ^"' ^ '""^ The light came nearer and npai^r u- c _^ ''But I .„»■ ,o «e. there, an' y„u-you will to help she had saved. ' He It ""Z^t 1:^^ "^ °/ "'"' year or two older, with littleif =^ Z- ^^' ■^'''''P' ' -ve a slight mo'ustache hL e^^'^jir"',!''''"- they were, she made out were bSk a„d'",h "f "' though drawn and famished h=,Si f *° ''"• Presently she rave hi^' .,: • ^ '"'"'''"'"'e look. get." '''^' " '" '° SO. go. go, till I on'?h:tix"i':e''':h*'"'7'""''''''^^''^'''''''^=-' as he stuTbtTo^rth; tl^rl^^MT ST^ "P^"' »«• .He warm room. S^^\fS°Jlth^r^t.*:Tot he'^lroratth^e^LrtTrf his"''' ^"'' '=«^"^^- from the eirl to the n»„ j ^^' . "^^ wandering ^claspinf ;Lrwee„ hi t^i"' HU tr'^^f '"« =•"' hunger, he watched her preparrt n„TT t^'"^ '"''^ and when at last-and she had i^^hT "" '"P^"' " - P'-d before him, hl'^ldt^ranrh^r;; A THE STROKE OF THE HOUR 49 faint with the stress of his longing. He would have swallowed a basin of pea-soup at a draught, but she stopped him, holding the basin till she thought he might venture again. Then came cold beans, and some meat which she toasted at the fire and laid upon his plate. They had not spoken since first entering the house, when tears had shone in his eyes, and he had said — "You have safe- ah, you have safe me, and so I will do it yet by help bon Dim — ^yes." The meat was done at last, and he sat with a great dish of tea beside him, and his pipe alight. "What time, if please?" he asked. "I t'ink nine hour, but no sure." "It is near nine," she said. She hastily tidied up the table after his meal, and then came and sat in her chair over against the wall of the rude fireplace. "Nine — dat is good. The moon rise at 'leven; den I go. I go on," he said, " if you show me de queeck way." "You go on— how can you go on?" she asked, almost sharply. " Will you not to show me ? " he asked. " Show you what ? " she asked abruptly. "The queeck way to Askatoon," he said, as though surprised that she should ask. "They say me if I get here you will tell me queeck way to Askatoon. Time, he go so fas', an' I have loose a day an' a night, an' I mus' get Askatoon if I Hf— I mus' get dere in time. It is all safe to de stroke of de hour, mais, after, it is —bon Dieu!—\t is hell then. Who shall forgif me — no ! " " The stroke of the hour— the stroke of the hour ! " It beat into her brain. Were they both thinking of the same thing now? 4 so $ NORTHERN LIGHTS " You will show me aueeck wax, r ^ . l * . Dat man's name I have forget " " °"'' ^"^ ^^''• "My father's name is Tohn AIrot,^» u absently, for there were haZnelTa. ht h" -""^ words, " TAe stroke of ,h: W ■" ^ " '"*'" ""= AWIT l' 'h'r''-;- • '^"' >'°" "'"«. " « Lofeette not forget da. nal , '" T? ""'"'' "°»-Loi«"e. I Her%^:S^t,;rjd^;',d';;''rsf-:;=.fC"t like smoke, mcbbe?" ^ P^* ^°" "°* Jheshook her head in negation, making an impatient I 4ke up an ib .t'^JrtrrJ"' "'^''°'^'»" Jo. I think I die it ;, .„ K J 5^ way— not like Noting h„t ^:::.zt'-c rfrr„!:-?. I mus' get AskaLn beforei!^,'' '"'" ^° "■^' f"' 4gop.k-?-i--^s---" beating tl,e ^tt^t^^' "" ^"^^ P»'=' "" foot «h;i^w;r:s:t^- taL4%TS- --^^ • THE STROKE OF THE HOITR 5, "What is that?'' she asked. She knew now, sureh- but she mi! ' isk it nevertheless. " Dat hang, j— of Haman," he answered. He nodded to himself. Then he took to gazing into the fire His hps moved as though talking to himself, and the hand that held the pipe lay forgotten on his knee. "What have you to do with Haman?" she asked slowly, her eyes burning. "I want safe him— I mus' give him free." He tapped his breast. "It is here to mak' him free." He still tapped his breast. For a moment she stood frozen still, her face thin and drawn and white; then suddenly the blood rushed back mto her face, and a red storm raged in her eyes She thought of the sister, younger than herself, whom Kube Haman had married and driven to her grave within a year— the sweet Lucy, with the name of her father's mother. Lucy had been all English in face and tongue a flower of the west, driven to darkness by this horse- dealmg brut-, who, before he was arrested and tried for murder, was about to marry Kate Wimper. Kate Wimper had stolen him from Lucy before Lucy's first and only child was born, the child that c Mid not survive the warm mother-life withdrawn, and so had gone down the valley whither the broken-hearted mother had fled. It was Kate Wimper, who, before that, had waylaid the one man for whom she herself had ever cared and drawn him from her side by such attractions as she herself would keep for an honest wife, if such she ever chanced to be. An honest wife she would have been had Kate Wimper not crossed the straight path of her life. The man she had loved was gone to his end also, reckless and hopeless, after he had thrown away his chance of a lifetime with Loisette Alroyd S3 NORTHERN LIGHTS There had been left behind this girl, to whom tragedy had come too young, who drank humihationLin "z:!i7; ' '''' '''"''''''-' '' --^^Ah It had hurt her, twisted her nature a little „• heart. She was glad when Haman was condemn^ because of the woman who had stolen him from S otn s: Vi:' "^'i^ T' '^^ ''^^^^ s°- -"o^ hT; the woman if shTh/'^'J" '^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^»>-* -- tne woman, if she had any heart at all. must have it bowed down by this supreme humiliation and wrunebv the ugly tragedy of the hempen rope. ^ ^ face "withThe^' rr ^'^°'' ^'^' ^^'^ ™^" -'^^ - boy's frLm X f ^. ""''"°"' ^y^^' ^'^^"^ ^he had saved from the frozen plains, he had that in his breast wW^ would free Haman. so he had said. A fu^ had £ birth ,n he:- at that moment. Something seemed to h!^'; ,r^"? ""^ '^''''' ''' -™-thing s^o bTg that it held all her faculties in perfect control, and !he fe herself m an atmosphere where all life moved round h ' mechanically, she herself the only s^nh^nt T ..uch greater than all she saw, o^aiuttle eaffse^d seemed small. How calm it was even with the fury .hI7.^" ""^'"J^^ '^'"^ q"Jetly-"tell me how you arc able to save Haman?" ^ ^ THE STROKK OF TIIK HOl'H 53 He kill Wakcly. It Is my bnui.lcr I'adette dat Kill and get away. Haman he is drunk, and evcryfinK seem to say Haman he did it. an' everyone know Haman js not friend to Wakely. So the juree say he must be hanging. But my bruddcr he go to dit n>h hawfiil bad cod queeck.an' he send for the priest an' for me- an tell all. I go to Governor with the priest, an' Governor gif me dat writing here." He apped his breast, then took out a wallet and shov e^ the paper to her. "It is life of dat Haman, voicii m: d sc I saf<- him for my brudder. Dat was a bad hoy, li^c, ttc He was bad all time since he was a bahr, an' i t'ink him pretty lucky to die on his bed, an' get a[..,.ivt ard go to purgatore. If he not have luck like iat he go to hell, an' stay there." He sighed, and put the wallet back in his brea ,t carefully, his eyes half-shut with weariness, his l.and- some face drawn and thin, his limbs lax with fatigue. " If I get Askatoon before dc time for dat, I be happy in my heart, for dat brudder off mine he get out of purgatore bime-bye, I t'ink." His eyes were almost shut, but he drew himself together with a great effort, and added desperately " No sleep. If I sleep it is all smash. Man say me I can get Askatoon by dat time from here, if I ao queeck way across lak'— it is all froze now, dat lak' — an' down dat Foxtail Hills. Is it so, ma'm'selle ? " ' "By the 'quick ' way if you can make it in time," she said ; "but It is no way for the stranger to go. There are always bad spots on the ice-it is not safe. You could not find your way." " I mus' get dere in time," he said desperately " You can't do it-alone," she said. " Do you want to risk all and lose?" I ■ il!' F I*' ■' I I HZ i 54 NORTHERN IJCJHTS He frowned in self-suppression. " Long way I no can get dere in time ? " he asked. X » ^ no She thought a moment. "No; it can't be done by the trail the Government men made a year ago when hey came to survey. It is a good trail. It is blazed m the woods and staked on the plains. You cannot rn.ss. But-but there is so little time." She looked at the clock on ihe wall. "You cannot leave here much before sunrise, and " jec'ted'*''" ^^^^ '^^^"^ ^^ "'°°" """' ^* ^^^^^"'" ^« '"ter- "You have had no sleep for two nights, and no food You can't last it out," she said calmly ^^The deliberate look on his face deepened tostubborn- "It is my vow to my brudder-he is i. .urgatore. An I mus do ,t," he rejoined, with an em pi.asis there wai no mistaking. « You can show me dat way ? " She went to a drawer and took out a piece of paper Then. w.th a point of blackened stick, as he watched her and listened, she swiftly drew his route for " y^"'.^ g^t >' '" my head." he said. « I go dat way but I wish-r wish it was dat queeck way. I S 2 fear, noting. I go w'en dat moon rise-I go. bien vnl^^^Q^"'' -''"T "'^"' ""^''^ ' S^* ^^'"^ food for you. She pointed to a couch in a corner. " I will wake you when the moon rises." For the first time he seemed to realise her, for a monient to leave the thing which consumed him. and put his mind upon her. " You not happy— you not like me here? "he asked Jl THE STROKE OF THE HOUR 55 simply ; then added quickly, « I am not bad man like me brudder — no." Her eyes rested on him for a moment as though realising him, while some thought was working in her mind behind. "No, you are not a bad man," she said. " Men and women are equal on the plains. You have no fear— I have no fear." He glanced at the rifles on the walls, then back at her. " My mudder, she was good woman. I am glad she did not lif to know what Fadette do." His eyes drank her in for a minute, then he said : " I go sleep now, t'ank you — till moontime." In a moment his deep breathing filled the room, the only sound save for the fire within and the frost outside." Time went on. The night deepened. Loisette sat beside the fire, but her body was half- turned from it towards the man on the sofa. She was not agitated outwardly, but within there was that fire which burns up life and hope and all the things that come between us and great issues. It had burned up everything in her except one thought, one powerful motive. She had been deeply wronged, and justice had been about to give "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." But the man lying there had come to sweep away the scaffolding of justice— he had come for that. Perhaps he might arrive at Askatoon before the stroke of the hour, but still he would be too late, for in her pocket now was the Governor's reprieve. The man had slept soundly. His wallet was still in his breast ; but the reprieve was with her. 56 NORTHERN LIGHTS I If he left without discovering his loss, and got well on h.s way, and discovered it then, it would beL late If he returned-she only saw one step before her she would wa.t or that, and deal with it when it came She was thmking of Lucy, of her own lover ruined and gone, bhe was calm m her madness At the first light of the moon she roused him. She drunka hi Tu '" '""^"^' P°^^^^' -^ -ft- he had drunk a bowl of hot pea-soup. while she told him his InlTh "^"l: '''l-P-^-^ the door, and he passed out into the mght. He started forward without a word bu came back again and caught her hand ^/. But I t^nk what you do for me, it is better than al my hfe. B:en sfir, I will come again, when I get mv mmd to myself. Ah. but you are beautibul." he saTd"^ /Lr ''"P^- '^^"' ' ^^'"^ again-yes! He was gone into the night, with the moon silvering n^nf'^.i 'I" ''''''' '^°^* ^^*^"S '"*° the sentien? hfe of this northern worid. Inside the house, with the bearskin blind dropped at the window again Tnd the fire blazing high. Loisette sat with thf Coventor's "hari" " ''"'• n^r^^''"^ ^^ ''' ^^' wondered why It had been given to Ba'tiste Caron. and not to a police^ officer Ah yes.it was plain-Ba'tiste was a wooLman and pUmsman. and could go far more safely than a constable, and faster. Ba'tiste had reason for go"ng fast, and he would travel night and day-he wa! trave ling night and day indeed. And now 3!^ might get there, but the reprieve would not He would not Ij able to stop the hanging of Haman-tt hanging of Rube Haman. A change came over her. Her eyes blazed, her Si t k^.^WBt^ THE STROKE OF THE HOUR 57 breast heaved now. She had been so quiet, so cold and still. But life seemed moving in her once again. The woman, Kate V/imper, who had helped to send two people to their graves, would now drink the dregs of shame, if she was capable of shame — would be robbed of her happiness, if so be she loved Rube Haman. She stood up, as though to put the paper in the fire, but paused suddenly at one thought—Rude Haman was innocent of murder. Even so, he was not innocent of Lucy's misery and death, of the death of the little one who only opened its eyes to the light for an instant, and then went into the dark again. But truly she was justified ! When Haman was gone things would go on just the same— and she had been so bitter, her heart had been pierced as with a knife these past three years. Again she held out her hand to the fire, but suddenly she gave a little cry and put her hand to her head. There was Ba'tiste ! What was Ba'tiste to her ? Nothing— nothing at all. She had saved his life— even if she wronged Ba'tiste, her debt would be paid. No, she would not think of Ba'tiste. Yet she did not put the paper in the fire, but in the pocket of her dress. Then she went to her room, leaving the door open. The bed was opposite the fire, and, as she lay there,— .she did not take off her clothesj she knew not why— she could see the flames. She closed her eyes, but could not sleep, and more than once when she opened them she thought she saw Ba'tiste sitting there as he had sat hours before. Why did Ba'tiste haunt her so ? What was it he had said in his broken English as he went away ?— that he would come back ; that she was " beautibul." All at once as she lay still, her head throbbing, her feet and hands icy cold, she sat up listening. fT-vwr w t s» k f NORTHERN LIGHTS "u^]*""*^^'" '" ^^^^ <^"«*- She sprang from her h^H njght ^^ She called into the icy void. " Qui va /a ? Who She leaned forward, her hand at her ear but nn sound cam*» \n — .«! /-w ^'» "^^ no "una came m reply. Once more she called hnf nothmg answered. The night was all liJhf !?'r and silence "^^' ^"'^ ^^ost .hem all and tell .he tru* about th" ™t e' tt 'i^ would not avail-Rube Han,an would ha"^ That 'did brother would be so long in purgatory. Xnd even ha! Da tiste. And Ba tiste he would know that sh^ =„j he had called her - beautibul," that she had— ""^ She^ltft ^ "^/''; ""'^™'>' ='°«'='l h^^-^'f for travel She put some food and drinic in a leather-bag and sW them over her slioulder. Then she dropped on a kn^ and wrote a note to her father, tears ffmng fto^ h" the doof Arrft "°1,°" ""= «- ^"'l "°-d toward^ wall whthl f k1" '""^ ""■"•='' '° «>= "-"fi'^ on the ^te'^fheteTolthtaSrdturr^^*^"' -'-"• ^^^^ then she went softly to the door, leaving the dog Sd! J ; THE STROKE OF THE HOUR 59 It opened, closed, and the night swallowed her. Like a ghost she sped the quick way to Askatoon. She was six hours behind Ba'tiste, and, going hard all the time, it was doubtful if she could get there before the fatal hour. On the trail Ba'tiste had taken there were two huts where he could rest, and he had carried his blanket slung on his shoulder. The way she went gave no shelter save the trees and caves which had been used to cdche buffalo meat and hides in old days. But beyond this there was danger in travelling by night, for the springs beneath the ice of the three lakes she must cross made it weak and rotten even in the fiercest weather, and what would no doubt have been death to Ba'tiste, would be peril at least to her. Why had she not gone with him ? " He had in his face what was in Lucy's," she said to herself, as she sped on. " She was fine like him, ready to break her heart for those she cared for. My, if she had seen him first instead of " She stopped short, for the ice gave way to her foot, and she only sprang back in time to save herself. But she trotted on, mile after mile, the dog-trot of the Indian, head bent forward, toeing in, breathing steadily but sharply. The morning came, noon, then a fall of snow and a keen wind, and despair in her heart; but she had passed the danger-spots, and now, if the storm did not over- whelm her, she might get to Askatoon in time. In the midst of the storm she came to one of the caves of which she had known. Here was wood for a fire, and here she ate, and in weariness unspeakable fell asleep. When she waked it was near sun-down, the storm had ceased, and, as on the night before, the sky was stained with colour and drowned in splendour. 6o I If 1=1' if' i , i NORTHERN LIGHTS Ia;L'^"l,t:i'];L";:^t-:;f'''''-';f called, an. herself all the wav anrl «h k ^ ^'^'^ ''^"'^^ ^'th «u iiic way, and she had conaupr»>r? i^- i i. of the wo^an bu. rotenttrat"':""!' ^"^ "'""S'" Ba'tisle, who had to suffe7fo7^L" h °^ f = '.'"'"Sl't of " purgatore." Once arai^ ,K • \ '*'' "' " '""'^'"^ '" lonelLs followrhef rte „'„r'^, '•""" '^ *"« ^"^ 'rail till long after .a;ght°tfttr'"thaf'"' ."T ""= there were houses hers ,^^\ [ '' " *''<' '<™»'. rested, but she p^^sh'S^o^l^X ^'^ ""■^'" "^^^ Astt^TSlSt^^ '"S^li' ho^' ^"'"^ 'o was, he made her ride a^ew Si„"'K°''';T"^ '^' t.T^:" ^-- -- '-^caTetthJt^r^of People were already in the street.; an^ ,ii ing one wav ^h^ cf I ^"eets, and all were tend- ^3 sne near..- . the jail she saw her father o«^ Ayr- r In amazement her father h.n ^ u . ""^ ^'""^^y- excited people, shThird a cr'"' ' "^ «"=<' -'" n>iLrLft%!d;'tthe"sh'"e:?rs"'-^ ■"" - discovered his loss. He^^^Sn ^vllr"' "'"' wht'p=.£:h~r!;r--'=^^^--- "Ah, you haf it! Say you haf it or ,> • «3e-he n,us. hang. Spiklsp^i,"; ^ ^rblder- THE STROKE OF THE HOUR 6i right! Ah, Loisettf. — don Dieu, it is to do him merci ! " For answer she placed the reprieve in the hands of the Sheriff Then she swayed and fell fainting at the feet of Ba'tiste. She had come at the stroke of the hour. When she left for her home again the Sheriff kissed her. And that was not the only time he kissed her. He did it again six months later, at the beginning of the harvest, when she and ¥ I'tiste Caron started off on the long trail of life together. None but Ba'tiste knew the truth about the loss of the reprieve, and to him she was " beautibul " just the same, and greatly to be desired. it N !1 >i|l ttii BUCKMASTERS BOY I BIN waitin' for hfm an' F'II «;* u- winter. I'll ,,t hr„;l"p,^lf:"'™ ^^ " ""